The German manufacturer of thalidomide has apologised for the first time to
the thousands of people who were born without limbs as a result of their
mothers taking the drug.

Harald Stock, chief executive of Gruenenthal, said he was "very sorry", 50 years after the pharmaceutical company pulled the drug from the market.

In a speech that has caused outrage amongst thalidomide victims, Mr Stock explained: "We ask that you regard our long silence as a sign of the shock that your fate caused in us."

The drug was sold as a cure for morning sickness in the 1950s and 1960s, but was found to cause defects in the eyes, ears, heart, genitals and internal organs of developing babies.

By the time it was taken off the shelves in 1961, 10,000 babies across the world had been born with a variety of disabilities. Up to 6,000 of the victims are still alive, including over 400 in Britain.

"We ask for forgiveness that for nearly 50 years we didn't find a way of reaching out to you from human being to human being," Mr Stock said at the unveiling of a bronze statue of a child born without limbs Stolberg, western Germany. "Instead, we remained silent."

Freddie Astbury, president of the Thalidomide UK, described the company's apology as a "disgrace" and called on the company to pay out compensation.

The 52-year-old from Liverpool was born without arms or legs after his mother took the drug.

"I'm gobsmacked," he said. "For years, (Gruenenthal) have insisted they never did anything wrong and refused to talk to us."

Mr Astbury said he and other British survivors had received some money over the years from a trust set up by thalidomide's UK distributor but that Gruenenthal had never agreed to settle.

"We invite them to sit around the table with us to see how far their apology will go," he said. "I don't think they've ever realised the impact they've had on peoples' lives."

Gruenenthal settled a lawsuit in Germany in 1972 and voiced its regret to the victims. But for decades, the company refused to admit liability, saying it had conducted all necessary clinical trials required at the time.

Thalidomide survivor Nick Dobrik dismissed the apology from the company.

"An apology should be an unreserved apology and not a conditional apology. It is strange when a company gives an apology which is not the truth, but is a lie," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"We feel that a sincere and genuine apology is one which actually admits wrongdoing. The company has not done that and has really insulted the Thalidomiders."